It is common in the prior art to mount up and down direction hall lanterns in a door strike post of an elevator cab having side opening doors, or a return post of a cab having center opening doors. The lamps of the hall lanterns are mounted in an electrical junction box behind a small removable face plate, fixed to the post. The removable face plate holds the hall lantern lenses in a functional position in front of the lamps, and its removal permits the lamps to be replaced when burned out. Visible hardware invites vandalism, and the visible face plate detracts from the aesthetics of the cab. A prior art alternative to a face plate is a swing return, which would be opened for bulb replacement, but a swing return adds substantial cost to a cab.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,449, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application, eliminated the need for a face plate as well as the need for a swing return, by a new door strike post construction for side opening doors, referred to as a "pop-out strike". The pop-out strike includes an inner stationary post and an outer post which functions as a removable cover for a hall lantern assembly which is attached to the inside of the outer post. While substantially less costly than a swing return, a pop-out strike still adds a significant cost to a cab, and it has a disadvantage of only being applicable to side opening doors.
It is also common to mount hall lanterns in a door post of a hatch door entrance in the hallways of a building served by an elevator system, where removable lenses and or face plates also invite vandalism.
It is an object of the present invention to provide hall lanterns suitable for mounting in the door post of a hatch or car door without requiring a removable face plate, visible fasteners, a swing return, or a pop-out strike. When cab mounted it is an object of the invention to provide a hall lantern assembly which may be installed in either a return or a strike post, and thus applicable to both center opening and side opening car doors.